Thursday, July 08, 2010
Pioneer CDJ-850: The Perfect Springboard From Bedroom to Club

For semi-pro bedroom DJs and bars, Pioneer today announced the new CDJ-850, available from August 2010.

Just as budding DJs practiced on the CDJ-800 at home in preparation for their club gigs on the CDJ-1000, the CDJ-850 is set to become the new training ground for DJs hoping to break it on the club circuit.

Apart from the ProDJ Link connection, the CDJ-850 inherits many of the features from the CDJ-2000 and 900, offering major enhancements over the outgoing CDJ-800MK2.

The full-size 206mm jog wheel will be familiar to all existing professional CDJ users, giving the same performance and feel as the top range products.

And no matter which CDJ you play on, the browsing logic is always the same and all the work put into customising rekordbox collections will be available on every player in the range.

The CDJ-850 features the same large rotary select dial as the CDJ-2000 and is the most affordable product in the range to feature the Wave display to see peaks and drops of the music. A Tag List feature allows you to think ahead 10, 20 or many more tracks by arranging temporary set lists on the fly. You can save this as a playlist and recall it later in rekordbox or use it again at the next gig.

And what?s more, it?s the only player to feature Tag List editing, so you can add, remove and change the order of tracks in the list.

Adapting to all ways of working, the CDJ-850 plays music from CD, USB and PC. Despite the price point, it?s capable of playing professional 24-bit WAV and AIFF, along with MP3 and AAC music files. It can be used as a Midi controller and 24-bit soundcard for music software, and with HID capability, software companies will be quick to announce Plug&Play support.

New CDJ-900/2000 Firmware 3.1

Pioneer also today released new firmware for its CDJ-2000 and CDJ-900 players, adding support for rekordbox Link and Scratch Live 2.1.

Firmware v3.10 is planned for release on July 12, 2010 and will be a free download from Pioneer's new global homepage. The free Scratch Live v2.1 software update is planned for release in Quarter 3 of 2010 from Serato Audio Research.

First up, rekordbox Link bridges the gap between our hardware and rekordbox software to become the easiest way of playing digital music. With rekordbox installed, wherever you find the new CDJ-900s / CDJ-2000s, you can perform instantly with just one standard network cable. The major advantage is that music is played on the CDJs, not in the software, so there?s no need to export.

Developed together with Serato Audio Research, Pioneer?s new CDJ-2000/900 firmware v3.10 enables software to use the built-in color displays. Detailed track information, text, album artwork (CDJ-2000 only), track overviews, cue/loop points and other track information for quicker visual feedback and enhanced DJ performance. In addition, checking playback status and selecting tracks can all be done directly on the CDJ players, minimizing the need to browse through a computer screen.

Serato Audio Research have implemented advanced HID technology to offer the best experience for Scratch Live users. CDJ-2000/900 players (updated with firmware v3.10) will work in sync with the Scratch Live software Version 2.1.

The CDJ-2000/900 will now enable DJs to operate Scratch Live version 2.1, together with official Rane hardware, without the need for timecode control discs. Scratch Live?s functions will automatically link to the corresponding controls of the CDJ-2000/900 players when a computer running the software is connected through the players? USB connection. In addition, functions such as tempo adjustment, play/cue and loop can be made without a computer keyboard or mouse.

Key features

- HID Support (Serato 2.1) - Strengthen connectivity between DJ software and player, which allows the software to show the following information on the CDJ display:
Browsing music file
Cue/Loop Points
Waveform
Album Art (Jacket picture, CDJ-2000 only)
Track End Warning

- Auto 8-Beat Loop setting by pushing the 4-Beat loop button for more than 1 second. (CDJ-2000 only)
- Track End Warning - when the remaining play time of a USB storage device or CD track is less than 30 seconds, the Jog illumination will blink and the "PLAYING ADDRESS" icon is inversed. (CDJ-2000 only)
- 0.1 Decimal BPM - Now able to show one decimal point of the BPM (CDJ-2000 only)
- Quantize Always On - The factory default of QUANTIZE is changed from OFF to ON.
- Anti Glitch - LOOP smoothing process was improved to reduce glitch sounds between the LOOP END and LOOP START points.

Bug fixes

- Slip Mode Fix - When SLIP mode was cancelled, a beat mismatch occurred. (CDJ-900 only)
- HID Jog Indication - The color of the Jog illumination was red when DJ software is used and should be White. (CDJ-2000 only)
- CDJ-900 Track Search Speed - The start time of playing back a track becomes quicker when "AUTO CUE" is enabled. (CDJ-900 only)
- CDJ-2000 Response Improvements - Operation time of "HOT CUE REC", "REAL TIME CUE IN" or "4-BEAT LOOP" after "SEARCH" or "SCAN" with MP3, or other music files becomes quicker. (CDJ-2000 only)